United Way of Pasco County receives $498,000 grant from U.S. Department of Justice to Assist Victims of Human Trafficking
Land O’ Lakes, FL – Earlier this week United Way of Pasco County (UWPC) President and CEO, Charles Anderson, announced that the U.S. Department of Justice has awarded the United Way of Pasco County a nearly half million dollar grant to assist survivors of human trafficking. This award was made possible from the FY 2020 Housing Assistance Grant for Victims of Human Trafficking program. The funding will be used to provide direct service case management to trafficking victims by providing rental assistance, utilities, or related expenses, such as security deposits and relocation cost.
According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, Florida consistently ranks 3rd among the rest of the states in the country for highest call volume to the hotline. In addition, Tampa is a major hub for transportation of international and domestic goods, wealthy buyers, and host to major events, perfect breeding ground for traffickers. These factors, among others, have created a massive need for services specifically for survivors of human trafficking.
In 2019 the UWPC Board of Directors agreed to broaden the focus areas to include Human Trafficking. Since then, UWPC has been allocating funding to various agencies with programs focusing on assisting trafficked clients. This new federal funding will be complementary to the efforts UWPC is already committed to doing with its partner agencies.
UWPC will be partnering with community partners to help offer longer-term housing solutions for this population. The $498,000 will be awarded to UWPC over a 3-year period with which they will be able to provide direct service assistance to clients with the help from a case worker trained in working with survivors of human trafficking. The goal and objective of the program is to secure safe housing for survivors and their families along with linking survivors to other wrap around services.
“Human Trafficking is a high priority for our United Way, and this is an important step forward to making a positive impact to improve lives of victims of human trafficking” said President and CEO, Charles Anderson.
United Way of Pasco County would like to thank Senator Marco Rubio, Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco, Congressmen Gus Bilirakis, its volunteers and all others in the community who assisted in ensuring that these federal dollars make it to assist the survivors of Pasco County and all surrounding areas in Tampa Bay.
Media Contact:
Laura Knight,
727- 247-2499